The rapidly increasing corona infections are worrying on several fronts. Not least for food logistics. Slaughterhouses, among others, are very concerned. In Australia, staff shortages are already leading to empty meat shelves in supermarkets.
With the current infection numbers, it is not unlikely that half of the European population will become infected with the omikron variant of the coronavirus within two months. Hans Kluge, director of the World Health Organization (WHO), warned about this so-called 'tidal wave' this week.
If this scenario comes true, chains will falter. Infected people (and their close contacts) must be quarantined for up to ten days and are then not allowed to appear in the workplace. While many sectors are already experiencing major staff shortages.
Slaughters down in US, shortages in Australia
In the United States, this problem is already emerging in the meat sector. Last Wednesday, 'only' 433.000 pigs were slaughtered, the lowest levels since August. This is also a decrease of no less than 12% compared to last year. This is because slaughterhouses are experiencing staff shortages, while government inspectors are also failing. Cattle slaughter is also lagging behind. It causes unrest in the American meat market and further rising meat prices.
In Australia the situation is more dire. There are reports of empty meat shelves in supermarkets in various places in the country. Due to the absence of slaughterhouse employees, the cattle slaughter figure last week was 65% below last year's level. There are also significantly fewer sheep being slaughtered.
Concerns at Vion and Tönnies
In the Netherlands, Vion has noticed increasing numbers of infections among staff in the slaughterhouses, the meat company announced earlier this week. The company knows what the consequences of the virus can be. In the summer of 2020 Various slaughterhouse locations were hit and subsequently had to close. Other slaughterhouses and meat processors are also concerned. Tönnies, the largest meat company in Europe, speaks of a problematic situation due to the increasing numbers of infections. Especially because the rinsing of employees is already very thin, while the slaughter process is labor intensive.
If slaughterhouses in the Netherlands and Germany are forced to scale down, this could negatively affect the flow of pigs, cattle and poultry (and therefore price formation). The trade organization COV is currently not aware of any signals of sources of infection at Dutch slaughterhouses, but the meat sector is aware of the risk, a spokesperson said when asked. Empty meat shelves are not an immediate issue in the Netherlands, due to the high degree of self-sufficiency that our country has.